Oily Cart

Oily Cart challenges the accepted definition of theatre and audience to create innovative, multi-sensory and interactive productions for children and young people with complex disabilities and for the under fives. It was established in 1981 to deliver a unique blend of theatre for children with profound disabilities and for very young children between the age of six months and five years.  Oily Carts productions are provided in schools and venues across the UK.

Oily Cart transforms everyday environments into colourful, tactile 'wonderlands' which its audiences have direct participation in.  It uses hydrotherapy pools, trampolines, aromatherapy, video projection, and puppetry together with a vast array of multi-sensory techniques to create original and highly specialised theatre for its young audiences.

True Colours has been a key funder of Oily Cart since 2002, having provided substantial funding for its core costs.  This has enabled the organisation to put on shows which are adapted to suit the individual needs of each participant, whatever their physical, sensory, intellectual or behavioural requirements.  Funding from the Trust has also facilitated the development of a toolkit aimed at artists and companies that would like to replicate the techniques Oily Cart use, to help develop their own shows or to reproduce one of Oily Cart's productions.  The toolkit is also used in training courses, seminars, summer schools and conferences. 

Oily Cart has developed a website to enable children with learning disabilities to participate more fully in its theatre productions, both before and after performances, without necessarily requiring the support of carers and teachers.  In the summer of 2009, a pilot of the website took place in three special schools in Manchester. 

Further information on Oily Cart can be found here.